Star Trek (From Herald Series)

Star Trek

2:17pm Wednesday 6th May 2009

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Space: the final frontier. This is the maiden voyage of a shiny, new Starship Enterprise under the captainship of director J. J. Abrams. Its mission: to revitalise a flagging yet beloved franchise, to breathe new life into iconic characters; to boldly go where so many have gone before.

Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who penned the recent reboot of Transformers, Star Trek is a big budget re-imagining of the series, exploring the formative years of Kirk, Spock and their interplanetary cohorts.

Ardent fans of the universe, created by Gene Roddenberry in the early 1970s, will take issue with some of the changes here, including the introduction of a forbidden romance and a time-travelling narrative thread. The film also lacks an imposing villain and two hours isn’t long enough to establish all of the crew in sufficient detail, but like the first X-Men, Abrams’s film is a solid building block for the future.

Michael Giacchino’s orchestral score is deafening (take earplugs or pain relief) from the opening sequence set aboard the USS Kelvin, captained by George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) whose wife Winona (Jennifer Morrison) is about to give birth.

“We can name him after your father,” says Winona as she goes into labour. “Tiberius?! That’s the worst,” quips George, as a Romulan warship under the control of Nero (Eric Bana) opens fire.

Many years later, a cocksure and impetuous James T Kirk (Chris Pine) enrols at Starfleet Academy, making an instant friend in Dr Leonard McKoy (Karl Urban). Some of the other recruits prove more difficult to win over, especially Spock (Zachary Quinto), until a Romulan attack on the Vulcan homeland unites the young men and women.

With Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) at the helm, crew members Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho) guide the pristine USS Enterprise into battle against Nero. The wily Romulan has a few tricks up his sleeve, pushing poor Spock to the brink as he races to save his father Sarek (Ben Cross) and mother (Winona Ryder).

Star Trek is a boisterous adventure incorporating that most reliable of plot devices, a black hole, which allows the filmmakers to ride roughshod over the past. Action sequences are orchestrated at breakneck speed, enlivened with slick digital effects.

A monstrous interlude on a snow-laden planet, recalling The Empire Strikes Back, is unnecessary though, but does introduce a familiar face, who plays a pivotal role in the fates of the crew.

Pine inhabits his role with authority, but it is Quinto’s portrayal of the emotionally conflicted first officer, struggling to control the rage within which lingers the memory. Simon Pegg plays Scotty for laughs, providing comic relief from the bombardment of explosions, bone-crunching fist fights and edge of seat escapes.

Before this Star Trek even blasts off, a sequel is already pencilled in for stardate summer 2011. Set phasers to stunning.

There’s no place like home in Coraline, the first ever stop-motion animated feature created in stereoscopic 3D. Adapted from Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel by writer-director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas), this colourful, yet thematically dark, fairy-tale has echoes of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland as an 11-year-old girl confronts the evil that threatens her fractured family.

The story revolves around young Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning), who moves into the Pink Palace Apartments with her writer mother Mel (Teri Hatcher) and father Charlie (John Hodgman). The apartment seems cold and the only child in the vicinity is a curious boy called Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr), who trundles around on a self-constructed, electric bicycle. To stave off boredom, Coraline explores her creaky, new home and meets the neighbours. Downstairs, she is enthralled by fading British musical hall divas Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders) and Miss Forcible (Dawn French), while upstairs, eight-feet tall Russian giant Mr Bobinsky (Ian McShane) cracks a whip over his circus of jumping mice.

One night, Coraline uncovers a secret door leading from the living room to a parallel reality called Other World, where her Other Mother and Other Father provide her with all of the love, support and attention she craves.

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